Grace Farms in Connecticut. Grace Farms / Dean Kaufman The United States has produced some really cool buildings, and we've found the coolest building in each state.

Defining "coolest" is hard. We evaluated every state on its own terms, and we've found that the architecture across all 50 is as diverse as its population.

In states like California and Massachusetts, "coolest" meant picking buildings that look futuristic and elegant, like something out of a science fiction movie, with architecture that looks like nothing else in the world. In other states, like Maine and the Carolinas, we've found that the coolest buildings are distinctive because of their place in history or the state's culture. And in some cases, like Tennessee, the coolest buildings were simply uniquely American creations, like a piece of Americana in building form.

ALABAMA: The Alabama Theater was originally built by Paramount as a movie house for their biggest features. Since then, it's become a cultural center in Birmingham, used for everything from plays to pageants.

ALASKA: The University of Alaska Museum of the North is full of exhibits showcasing native cultures, natural wonders, and wildlife from our nation's largest state. It's also a stylish refuge from the cold.

A building at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.Maureen/Flickr

CALIFORNIA: It was designed in 1960, but The Chemosphere still looks futuristic. It's a house with 2,200 feet of space, perched atop a 30-foot concrete pole. And it's survived every single Californian earthquake to pass through the San Fernando Valley since it was built.

CONNECTICUT: The main feature of Grace Farms in New Canaan is a serpentine wooden pavilion that links glass-walled rooms, including a library, stage, tea room, and a gym with a full basketball court. Completed in 2015, it's open to the public for free.

GEORGIA: The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Atlanta is the largest Hindu temple of its kind outside of India. The 34,000 pieces of stone were carved in India and then shipped to Atlanta, where the temple was assembled by volunteers.

HAWAII: ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu is the only royal palace on United States soil. David Kalākaua, the last reining king of Hawaii and the first monarch to travel around the world, was inspired by European palaces he saw on his 1881 voyage.

ILLINOIS: Although there are between five and six million adherents to the Bahá'í faith, there are only seven houses of worship around the world. The one in Wilmette, Illinois, is the oldest and largest, and the only one in the United States.

INDIANA: When the West Baden Springs Hotel opened in 1902, it was billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World. While enjoying the view from inside the massive domed atrium — at one point the largest in the world — it's easy to see why.

IOWA: Father Paul Dobberstein promised to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary as she helped cure his grave case of pneumonia. His resulting Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend is made of rocks, shells, fossils, and gems pressed into concrete. It's the size of a football field.

LOUISIANA: The Pontalba Buildings, which make up two sides of New Orleans' Jackson Square, are emblematic of the French Quarter. Some of the residences on the upper floors are thought to be the oldest continuously-rented apartments in the country.

MONTANA: Construction started on the Montana State Capitol in 1896. The inside of the rotunda salutes four types of people central to the state's early history: a native American, an explorer, a gold miner, and a cowboy.

NEBRASKA: Lincoln's International Quilt Study Center & Museum is home to the largest collection of quilts in the world. They're an oft-forgotten, beautiful tradition of American history, and the building's beautiful glass panels allow light in from every angle.

NEW JERSEY: Nassau Hall is the oldest building at Princeton University. While today it contains the school's administrative offices, during the Revolutionary War it was held by both British and American forces, and was damaged during the battles.

NEW YORK: The Empire State Building gets all the hype, but it's the Chrysler Building that's really the most magnificent skyscraper in New York City. The Art Deco-style building was the tallest in the world when it was built, but it was beat out by — you guessed it — the Empire State Building just 11 months later.

NORTH CAROLINA: Give it to North Carolina for having their most beautiful building be a civil landmark. The state's Executive Mansion in Raleigh is the home of the governor and a high-profile event venue that's open to public tours.

NORTH DAKOTA: At the center of Bismarck's North Dakota Heritage Center is a great glass cube flanked by two copper-color wings. It's the home of the state's greatest treasures — including lots of dinosaur fossils.

OHIO: The Longaberger Company, which makes baskets, made a building in Newark that perfectly matches its brand. The building was closed in 2016, and its unclear what's going to happen to the kitsch icon next. It may, sadly, be torn down.

OKLAHOMA: The Devon Energy Center may seem like just another glass-and-steel skyscraper. But in the skyline of Oklahoma City, it stands out as a building that reflects the sky and the landscape around it.

OREGON: Travel + Leisure called The Portland Building "one of the most hated buildings in America," and its reputation is split among architecture critics. But its shapes, strange geometric clashes of glass and stone make it the weird building that Portland most deserves.

PENNSYLVANIA: Frank Lloyd Wright's 1935 masterpiece Fallingwater remains Pennsylvania's greatest work of architecture. Water falls from each level of the building into the one below it, perfectly integrating into the landscape.

RHODE ISLAND: There are plenty of houses of horror in American literature, but the Shunned House in Providence holds the distinction of being written about by the master of horror himself, H.P. Lovecraft. In his novel, he writes about the centuries-long curse on the house's residences.

SOUTH CAROLINA: The South Carolina State House is one of the most majestic classical-style buildings in the country. In 2015, there was a big controversy over whether or not the Confederate flag should fly from its flagpole.

VERMONT: The Old Round Church in Richmond is technically a 16-sided polygon, but it's still enough of a circle to lend credence to a rumor that it was built in that shape so that the Devil had no corners to hide in.

VIRGINIA: If they're done wrong, airports can be the most insufferable place to spend a few hours. But we have to admire Virginia's Dulles International Airport, which almost looks like a futuristic aircraft itself.

WASHINGTON, DC: The United States Capitol is such a mainstay of nightly news and political pop culture that it's easy to take for granted. It's nice to step back once in a while and take in the grandeur.

WYOMING: Cheekily billed as "The World's Oldest Building," this house off of US Route 30/287 is made almost entirely of dinosaur bones. It was featured in "Ripley’s Believe It or Not!," and for good reason.

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